Self Labrum Piercing

By Anonymous · Jan. 23, 2000

ing the old "if you want something done right, do it yourself" adage (after a lame attempt by a piercer who shall remain nameless; he fucked-up my custom fishtail jewelry, pierced me off-center, and I had to abandon), I just VERY successfully pierced my labrum!
I went to lunch with my girlfriend yesterday, and saw a girl with a labret stud, and I said, "Shit, I wish mine would have worked-out." Before I was ever pierced, and even after, labret jewelry has always been my favorite, aesthetically -- still is! I wondered about doing it myself all the rest of the day. We had been making plans to do some flintknapping (making stone tools -- experimental archaeology), and I thought, "Man, if I can make stone tools, I can sure as hell pierce my self." So I pondered how this could be done ­ without standard equipment, such as an autoclave, forceps, piercing needles, etc.

Then, I woke up the next morning to an email informing me that an old friend of mine died, probably due to a heroin or crack overdose, last night. I was really bummed-out, but followed through with my plans to visit a local artist for a tattoo consultation. Of course, there was a guy in the studio with a labret stud, and I really wanted to go for it! I've been interested in piercing myself for a long time, especially to satisfy my anthropological "interest." (Let's face it folks, prehistoric people did not have autoclaves, and at the time of Spanish contact in Mexico, piercing and bloodletting and other mods. were recorded with no mention of autoclaves, etc.) Not that this would really give me a sense of what it was like to modify my body in a prehistoric society, but hey, I'm always curious about "doing stuff the old fashioned way."
So, after the consultation with Nick Wiggins, I went down the street to the Osco drug store and got a LARGE sewing needle (probably about 12 gauge, some KY jelly, 90% isopropyl alcohol, and went home to do the job. I set-up as sterile a work-space as I could, and soaked the needle and jewelry in the alcohol for 35 min., then examined my labrum and inner lip for ideal internal and external placement of the jewelry. I didn't mark the spots, because I didn't have a sterile marker . . . I kept the two "targets" in mind, and wiped my outer labrum with iodine several times, and rinsed twice with Listerine. I decided to go from out-side in. I washed my hands VERY well with anti bacterial soap, the removed the needle from the alcohol. I squeezed a little bit of the soap on it for "lube," lined it up, and pushed it straight through with my thumb as I used both hands as "forceps." It went through smoothly, bit got met some resistance as I tried to push it through the last layer of tissue inside the lip ­ I could see the needle tip under the skin ­ pretty cool, actually! I then tried to follow the needle out with the jewelry as I removed I, but that did NOT work. I then re-inserted the needle to open the hole up again, and removed it immediately. As quickly as I could, I took the flatback post (back attached to post) out of the alcohol, and "lubed" it up with anti-bac. soap, and followed the needle's trajectory as best as I could ­ turned out to be perfect . . . no problems at all!
Then I screwed on the ball, and then tightened my lip and pressed the back against my teeth to expose as much of the post as possible, and used the cap of the alcohol bottle to soaked it for a second or two; I then put about 2 oz. of alcohol in my mouth, and "ballooned" my lower lip out, while pushing in on the ball from the outside with my finger in order to try to irrigate the piercing with alcohol. So hopefully, I was able to kill any pathogens that may have gotten past my semi-"sterile field."
The placement turned out to be PERFECT! Dead center on the external end, located just about 1cm. below my bottom lip; the flat back of the post doesn't even touch my teeth or gums, unless I'm chewing (then just a brushes the incisors very slightly), grinning or laughing, which I am doing a lot of right now because this was so cool! I can't emphasize enough the satisfaction that I had from actually modifying MY SELF ­ and getting it right! (Also, I have to admit that I am gloating a little bit because the piercing is a hundred times better than the "professional" did on me several weeks ago.)
Remember kids, don't try this at home (yeah, right . . . thanks Jon Davidson.)
Ken

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 23 Jan. 2000in
Lip Piercing

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Artist: Me%21Studio: My+bathroom%21Location: Champaign%2C+IL

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